What cutters are people using?
I've always used Dembart but have run out. I bought a Doiron carbide cutter once and it was useless.
Cheers.

Started out primarily using Gunline but when availability became an issue migrated to Michael Ullman. There's another guy whom I have not used yet, Steve Earl, that according to his website makes cutters using EDM to cut the teeth and conveniently stamps his cutter tips with the LPI which I think is a good idea.

I have used Dembart and Gunline. I will check out the Steve Earl line now. I agree the Doiron is useless,

ullman

Michael Ullman, yep! The carbide cutters are hard to get used to after using the finer cutting Dem_Bart but once you get used to them they are great and last forever.

I just took a close look at my checkering tools and realized that the last gun stock I did was with Ullman cutters. It was my best checkering job.
Ullman are a bit different to get used to. They really dig out the wood and are aggressive, I thought. They are definitely my best checkering cutters.

Ok thanks for the replies, looks like Ullman are the go. Was concerned the carbide might not be as sharp as the HSS Dembart fine cutters that cut really well IMO especially when the grain is working against you.

quote:

Originally posted by wesley timmerman:
I have used Dembart and Gunline. I will check out the Steve Earl line now. I agree the Doiron is useless,

Doiron cutters are my "go to" When new, yep, like a new band saw blade..too sharp! Break them in before cutting on a stock and they last forever. Haven't tried Ullman because I bought up the last couple Dorions"s I could find.

I’m with Duane, the cutters I got from Dorion cut smoother than anyone else’s cutters. Ulman says their cutters are exact copies but they are not. Ullman cutters are made with a courser tooth-per-inch. I’ve asked them to copy the 60 TPI of Doiron but they never responded. Side by side there’s a huge difference.

Doiron cutters (hand tool ones).....about 50% of what I purchased had the teeth not centred in the cutter tip/body. PITA. Looking over the top your eye gets accustomed to aligning the tool in the centre of the cut with a normal tool. When ground noticeably off-centre this goes out the door and you have to concentrate on aligning the tool with each cut. Some of these tools were so off-centre as to make them a bane to use.

On tools he provided affixed to handles, a lot of the tips were misaligned when soldering. Off centred and/or skewed. If the above is not enough, this makes checkering all the more painful, but they can be re-soldered.

Doiron offered fine and medium pitch cutter tooth options. The fine ones cut okay, the coarser ones cut a bit harsh and grabby.

Assuming good walnut, it's hard to get a really nice finish on the diamonds with a carbide tool even with fine tooth pitch and when well broken-in. I've found sharp HSS is the king for that, and not real hard to make a good pointing-up cutter.

Jeez....I personally have never seen those problems..that would ruin my whole day!

As I noted earlier, carbide seems to cut nice and smooth IF well broken in

Okay, now I'm about to show what a rank rookie I am.

I was looking at Ullman's site and cannot find "spacing" tools like the Dembart's that I've used extensively. ie: 22 lpi right blank left cut and left blank right cut etc.

Is this bush-league to use a spacing tool like this? How do y'all space the lines from the master line? Use someone else's tool other than Ullman?

Zeke

Duh, never mind.
I found the spacing cutters.
Some day I'll learn how to search and read.

Zeke

I use the eze lap diamond in a fine cut to touch up the carbide cutters and they will not dig into the wood. I have a picture of this sharpening of a tool, but can not find it on the PC. You need to file the metal on these diamond files down to a knife edge to get into the spacing of the fine line carbide cutters. It makes for a much better V cutter and will be smooth.